Marcus
Andronicus, so I do affy
In
thy uprightness and integrity,
And
so I love and honour thee and thine,
Thy
noble brother Titus and his sons,
And
her to whom my thoughts are humbled all,
Gracious
Lavinia, Rome's rich ornament, That I will here dismiss my loving friends,
And
to my fortunes and the people's favor Commit my cause in balance to be weigh'd.
Bassianus
Titus Andronicus
Act 1, Scene i Line 48
I believe that when I was being taught language arts back in
grammer school (when it was simply called English class) today’s Totally Random
line would be referred to as a run-on sentence. But of course since it’s
Will’s, we won’t call it that.
So we spent the weekend with some non-play material; Lucrece
and The Passionate Pilgrim (I’d like to find out where that second title comes
from). But today we’re back to the plays. And thankfully as far as I’m
concerned. Oh, his other works have some good stuff in them, don’t get me
wrong. But it’s just nice to be back in the plays. Even if it is this trouble
maker Titus Andronicus. But today’s
line, other than its length, is not very troubling at all. In fact, there’s not
one iota of blood and gore and guts in it. Not even an oblique reference.
This is the very beginning of the play and we have Bassianus talking. He’s responding to Marcus,
Titus’s brother. Bassanius and Saturninus are the two candidates for leadership
of Rome (not sure what the title of the leader is). They’ve just introduced themselves
when Marcus pipes up that Titus, who is a great warrior, wants to be considered
for leadership. This is Bassianus’s reply to Marcus, and it seems to be a
pretty positive reply, don’t you think?
And new word today, in the first line: affy. It means to
trust in. Interesting, isn’t it? So Bassianus and Saturninus are going to trust
in Marcus’s uprightness and integrity and go along with him, welcoming Titus
into the election. It all seems pretty rosy, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, it won’t
last. This is all just setting up an incredible contrast for what’s to come. If
you’ve forgotten, you can go to the ‘Will’s Works/Pete’s Posts’ tab and check
out the posts on Titus. There’s quite a few there. Or if you’d rather enjoy the
rosiness of the moment and prefer not to think about the bad stuff, stay away
from those posts. Your choice.
That's right, affy in what I told you and be prepared for the worst if you plan on going and checking out those Titus posts.
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